UNFI to consolidate five distribution centres into a new 1.2 million-sq-ft and expanded 800,000-sq-ft facilities in Washington

Company is optimising its Pacific Northwest distribution centre network

UNFI, a US food wholesaler with estimated annual sales of $21 billion, has entered into a long-term lease agreement with a developer in Centralia, Washington to construct a 1.2 million square-foot distribution centre exclusively for UNFI on approximately 77 acres at 4002 Galvin Road in Centralia, Washington. The Centralia distribution centre is located in close proximity to two existing UNFI DCs in Tacoma and Portland.

UNFI will also expand its Ridgefield, Wash. facility by 541,000 square feet (to a total of nearly 800,000 square feet) to provide capacity for its growing customer base in the natural, organic and specialty channel. This facility will deploy a warehouse automation solution that supports the company's slow-moving SKU portfolio.

Today, UNFI operates five distribution centres in the Pacific Northwest, a 944,000 square-foot facility in Tacoma, Wash., a 323,000 square-foot warehouse in Auburn, Wash., 220,000 square-foot and 30,000 square-foot warehouses in Ridgefield, Wash., and a 923,000 square-foot warehouse in Portland, Ore. Once construction of the new Centralia DC is complete and the expansion of the Ridgefield DC is finished, UNFI plans to close its Tacoma, Portland and Auburn warehouses, as well as reduce its dependency on outside storage and third-party logistics services. Both the Centralia and Ridgefield facilities are expected to be fully operational in the second half of 2019 with customer transition completed in early 2020.

"The construction of Centralia and expansion of our Ridgefield facility represents the first significant step in our optimization of UNFI's DC network following the acquisition of SUPERVALU, allowing us to better serve all our customers throughout the Pacific Northwest," said Steve Spinner, UNFI Chairman and CEO. "These are two tremendous facilities that, once complete, will provide a great working environment for our associates, an improved and efficient layout for inventory management, optimized logistics route planning, and an ability to help us deliver on the long-term synergy goals we outlined as a part of the SUPERVALU acquisition."